Shojin Ryori (Buddhist Cuisine) (1) at Tenryu-ji Temple, Arashiyama

Having local food is one of the enjoyments of travelling.

Sushi and Tempura were the only major requests from visitors I met 5 years ago. In recent years requests are much more varied, from ramen noodles to Kobe beef. Some would like to try a bento box others want Japanese curry. I feel Japanese food has become much better known overseas.

Kyoto's well-known cooking styles are;
Obanzai (the home cooking Kyoto style)
Kaiseki cuisine (both Kaiseki as course meal 会席 and meal at tea ceremony 懐石)
Shojin cuisine (Buddhist vegetarian meal).

There are many headquarters of temples in Kyoto and they all receive visitors from the parishioners of their branch temples. Some of them offer accommodation and will provide food or have catering services. I mentioned before in this blog about Okutan (a yudofu restaurant) which is one of this kind of facility at Nanzen-ji Temple. Okutan is a private restaurant, not run by the temple.

Autumn colours: Jingo-ji Temple in Takao

Jingo-ji Temple, Takao, Kyoto
神護寺 (京都/高雄)

 

 

 

Takao, Makio and Togano'o are in the mountains west of Kyoto and together are one of the most popular destinations for Autumn colours. Each of the areas has a temple, one of them designated as a World Heritage Site. It takes 50 minutes more or less from Kyoto Station. It is only popular with visitors at this time of year and the rest is sleeping.

a snowy morning

We hardly ever have snow in central Kyoto nowadays, it might lie briefly a couple of times a year. I seem to remember it used to be more often when I first started living here. Global warming? It could be.
I went out to take photos when I saw the snow on the neighbour’s roof. It wasn’t enough to cover the ground, but it gave slight colour to the scenery.

I went to Nijo Castle and Shinsen-en.


At Nijo Castle only a little snow remained.

108

In the last hour of the year 2009 I visited a temple to participate in the ceremony of ringing the bell 108 times. Because of the crowds my friend and I along with the four others took our turn as groups of six were allowed to ring the bell in turn. The idea being to get rid of so-called “worldly desires” in 2009 before the start of the new year.




After that we went drinking until 5 o’clock. I’m not sure how successful I was in getting rid of “worldly desires”.


(left: a new year's ornament at Sanjusangen-do
/ right: a new year's ornament in Kyoto style)

A Happy New Year to you all.

Tenryu-ji Temple

Tenryu-ji Temple, Arashiyama, Kyoto
天龍寺（京都/嵐山）

I think Tenryu-ji Temple’s attraction is the garden.


It has been known as Tenryu-ji and belonged to the Rinzai Zen sect of Buddhism since its founding in 1345 by the first Ashikaga shogun, prior to that the land had been a temple and for a time a detached palace.The temple has a long history, however it has suffered fire many times and the present day structures are mostly built within the last 200 years.


The garden around the pond has never been affected by the fires and is said to closely resemble the original.


It was designed by a priest Muso Soseki, who also designed the garden of Saiho-ji, Koke-dera or Moss Temple. It is a strolling style garden but the path around the pond is closed to the public.


Nevertheless it still has an open-spaced cheerful atmosphere with a backdrop of mountains showing seasonal colours throughout the year.

Jojakko-ji Temple

Jojakko-ji Temple, Sagano, Kyoto
常寂光寺（京都/嵯峨野）

Spring and autumn are the best seasons to visit Kyoto. Some places are well known for cherry blossom and some for Japanese maples. This temple is a popular place for Japanese maples. It is notably praised for its picturesque hillside setting amongst the blazing reds of autumn.


Jojakko-ji Temple was originally the retirement place of a renowned monk. The land was said to be donated by a successful merchant and the structures were donated or transferred from a castle and temple. It shows how influential and respected he was.


The temple has a pretty cypress bark roofed Taho-to tower, a thatched Nio-mon gate and a small quiet garden. It may worth trying to visit during the maple season.

Gio-ji Temple

Gio-ji Temple, Sagano, Kyoto
祇王寺（京都/嵯峨野）


Sagano has been known as a beautifully scenic place since the beginning of Kyoto’s history. It used to be a popular location for the Imperial family and aristocrats to own second homes and for anyone seeking seclusion, some still-active temples were founded a long time ago for that reason. Gio-ji Temple was one of those and is known for two historical figures who became nuns and spent the rest of their lives there. The temple is named after one of them.


The precinct is surprisingly small, but the temple is in bamboo forest and the garden is covered with moss, it’s very pretty and cosy.

Adashino-Nenbutsu-ji Temple

Adashino-Nenbutsu-ji Temple, Kyoto
化野念仏寺（京都）

The other day I took guests to Arashiyama and Sagano areas. We started at Adashino-Nenbutsu-ji Temple in Kiyotaki.

It is located in north east Kyoto and takes 40 minutes by bus from the city centre. Nowadays it’s easily accessible from the city but until 40 or 50 years ago it was a very quiet backwater.


According to the temple record a monk, Kukai, founded the temple about 1,100 years ago to repose deceased souls in the area. The custom had been to leave bodies randomly in the open without burial and this area was the designated area for leaving the bodies. Later burial became the common practice for disposal of the deceased but there were still no cemeteries and graves were scattered throughout the area. Over the years the graves were abandoned because there were no relatives or descendants to look after them. These abandoned, scattered tombstones (in this case pagoda-shaped or jizo statues rather than the western idea of tombstones) were gathered together in around 1903 and set in the temple in order to help the souls of those buried and forgotten throughout the area. The temple’s uniqueness is due to the resulting huge number of aligned stone statues and pagodas there –it is said over 8,000 of them .

On the 23rd and 24th of August a festival takes place in the temple called “Sento-Kuyo (千灯供養)”. “sen(thousand) to(light) kuyo (repose of deceased souls)”. The candle lights offered in front of the statues are to pray for the souls of the deceased who are now unknown.

The temple is located on a mountain and viewing cherry blossom in spring and autumn colours is enjoyable there. The place reminds us life and death are connected and like the changing colours of the seasons nothing is eternal.

Adashino-Nenbutsu-ji (Official/ Japanese)

Kozan-ji temple in Togano'o

Kozan-ji Temple, Togano'o, Kyoto
高山寺 (京都/栂尾)

Unexpectedly I had a car available I went to Togano-o area. Togano-o is north west of Kyoto city and might take more than 1 hour bus ride from Kyoto station. -I took 40 minutes by car.

I didn’t have much time to visit, so I picked Kozan-ji temple to visit this time.





The temple used to have many structures, but only a few are left. The sub-temple “Sekisui-in” is the only one left from the Kamakura period (1185-1333) and designated as a National Treasure.


One of the reasons making Kozan-ji so popular is this series of drawings. “Choju-jinbutsu-giga” (Scrolls of Frolicking Animals and Scrolls of Frolicking Animals and Humans) is said to be the first “manga” and the motifs are still very very popular, and can be seen on various products. –Actually my rice bowl has this motif. A replica is on show. It consists of 4 volumes and the originals are kept by Tokyo and Kyoto National Museums, each with two volumes.


A stunning view from Sekisui-in. Though renowned for it’s autumn colours the early summer green, in Japanese called the season of “Shinryoku” (new green), is every bit as beautiful.




I wanted to see this tea field, said to be the oldest in Japan. The stone sign on the below makes this claim.



Entry is prohibited but as I was born in a tea producing area and tea and paddy fields were my childhood landscape I was interested in seeing what the oldest is like. As expected the field is nothing special…






The Kozan-ji is registered as a “World Heritage Site”.

The neighbouring mountains have two other well-known temples and usually visitors visit all three temples in one trip. The whole area is one of the most popular destinations for autumn colours, particularly Japanese maples. It must be utterly stunning. Most of the maples I saw there were very tall and much bigger than the ones in the city. I imagine that the temples would be covered with blazing red colours.

a canal runs in a temple

Lake Biwa Canal at Nanzen-ji Temple, Kyoto
南禅寺の琵琶湖疎水(京都)

Lake Biwa Canal runs in Nanzen-ji Temple.
The site is frequently used at a location of Japanese dramas.

Gardens at Nanzen-ji Hojo Abbot’s Quarters (6)

Gardens at Nanzen-ji Hojo Abbot’s Quarters, Kyoto
南禅寺方丈(京都)



"還源庭" (Kangen-tei Garden) literally means “back to origin”.

Gardens at Nanzen-ji Hojo Abbot’s Quarters (5)

Gardens at Nanzen-ji Hojo Abbot’s Quarters, Kyoto
南禅寺方丈 (京都)





Roji tea garden


“龍吟庭” (Ryugin?-tei Garden) literally means “Dragon growling”.


”涵龍池” (Kanryu-chi? Pond) literally means “Dragon soaking”.

Gardens at Nanzen-ji Hojo Abbot’s Quarters (4)

Gardens at Nanzen-ji Hojo Abbot’s Quarters, Kyoto
南禅寺方丈 (京都)

“華厳の庭” (Kegon Garden)
According to the notice board of the garden; the word “Kegon” means “flower decoration” and is the core idea of Kegon sutra.

Gardens at Nanzen-ji Hojo Abbot’s Quarters (3)

Gardens at Nanzen-ji Hojo Abbot’s Quarters, Kyoto
南禅寺方丈 (京都)

“六道庭” (Roku-do garden)
In contrast to the former garden, this represents six realms in Buddhist cosmology.

Gardens at Nanzen-ji Hojo Abbot’s Quarters (2)

Gardens at Nanzen-ji Hojo Abbot’s Quarters, Kyoto
南禅寺方丈 (京都)

“如心庭” literally means “as the mind”. The stones are laid out in the form of the letter mind and the garden represents the state of enlightenment.

Gardens at Nanzen-ji Hojo Abbot’s Quarters (1)

Gardens at Nanzen-ji Hojo Abbot’s Quarters, Kyoto
南禅寺方丈 (京都)

Hojo, the Abbot's Quarters, of Nanzen-ji temple has some gardens.

This is the oldest one and it is said to be the work of Kobori Enshu during the Edo period.

Nanzen-ji Temple

Nanzen-ji Temple, Kyoto
南禅寺(京都)

Nanzen-ji (南禅寺) temple is one of headquarters of the Nanzen-ji school of Rinzai zen sect. Originally a retired emperor's detached palace turned into a Zen temple. Like other old temples of Japan, the temple has lost original structures due to fire and war. The temple was restored by donation and the transfer of structures and many paintings from the Imperial Palace and Fushimi Castle which doesn’t exist anymore.


This is San-mon(三門) the main gate of the temple.
It is very familiar to Japanese
because of a Kabuki play about a thief.


"Hatto Hall"
where all the official rites are conducted.


"Kuri" where we enter Hojo.


Next to Kuri there is a gate
only opened for official occasions.


Go into Hojo Abbots' Quarters.


You can enjoy a bowl of green tea
in a room overlooking a pleasant garden.


This is an accompanying sweet with the temple name shown on it.
It doesn’t look good but it tastes much better than it looks.
It was yummy.